Kidney cancer microscope cuts patient waits

The confocal microscope highlights cancer cells

A kidney cancer clinic is using a new microscope which can diagnose biopsy samples within minutes, rather than days or weeks, making it a "UK first", a hospital trust said.

The £250,000 confocal microscope is being used at the "one-stop" kidney clinic at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

Patients with suspected kidney cancer can have a biopsy, receive a diagnosis and discuss treatment options - all on the same day.

Ken Pottle, 63, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, who has now been given the all-clear by the clinic, said the speedy diagnosis with the microscope let him "get on with my life".

The microscope, funded by Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust (ACT) and the University of Cambridge, looks much like an office printer or scanner.

More often used in dermatology, it provides high-resolution images of tissue samples, so once a sample is stained and scanned by the confocal microscope, pathologists at the kidney clinic can make an immediate diagnosis, the hospital trust said.

Prof Grant Stewart, consultant urologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital and professor of surgical oncology at the University of Cambridge, said: "For the first time in the UK, we are using a confocal microscope in this innovative way to benefit patients.

"Offering same-day diagnosis helps reduce anxiety, cuts down on hospital appointments and means patients can have that all-important discussion with their doctor about treatment options significantly sooner."

Ken Pottle has been treated at the one-stop clinic and said the quick turnaround was "brilliant"

Patient Mr Pottle visited the one-stop clinic in March after a scan for an unrelated condition showed a lump on his kidney.

"Cancer is the one thing that everyone knows about and fears. If I get that, is it the end?" he said.

"When I heard about the one-stop kidney clinic, I thought, 'wow, what a fantastic idea' and the fact that I could have a biopsy, receive a diagnosis and talk through treatment options with my doctor there and then, all on the same day, made such a difference."

Mr Pottle has been able to get back to old hobbies such as his motorcycle

Cambridge University Hospitals Trust, which runs Addenbrooke's, said cancer waiting times for patients at the kidney clinic were more than halved, cutting average waiting times by a month, according to research.

"Patients on the typical multi-appointment pathway waited 55 days between first being referred and a decision being made about treatment, while patients at the one-stop kidney clinic waited just 25 days," the trust said in a statement.

Researchers found there was a 91.7% match between the diagnoses made using the confocal microscope and final pathology. In the other 8.3% of cases, the diagnoses agreed but the cancer subtype was uncertain.

Out of 48 patients evaluated in the study, none of the treatment plans made on the day at the one-stop clinic needed to be changed after their formal biopsy pathology analysis was completed.

Dr Anne Warren, consultant pathologist at the hospital, said: "Patients would wait several days - maybe weeks even - for a result, but we're able to give an initial diagnosis within minutes.

"We still carry out the traditional methods afterwards, such as histology processing, in order to obtain more information about the tumour."

Dr Anne Warren said traditional methods of diagnosis are used alongside the faster method

Mr Pottle, who said he benefited from the fast turnaround at the clinic, confirmed the one-stop approach "suited" him.

"Get it done - get on with my life," he said.

Looking at his results on the computer screen with his consultant, Mr Pottle said it "seems to be a no-brainer doing it quick like this".

"It's the first time I've seen this, so it's really interesting to see where the lump was."

He has now been given the all-clear from cancer at the kidney clinic.

"To see it all over and done with, and you hold your grandchild and think, I wouldn't be here otherwise so - it's lovely."